The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

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Monday, March 31, 2014

Vatican City, 31 March 2014 (VIS) –
This morning a press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office
to present the initiatives forming part of the preparations for the
canonisations of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II, to be
celebrated on 27 April. The speakers were Cardinal Agostino Vallini,
vicar of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, along with Msgr.
Giulio Dellavite, secretary general for the Curia of Bergamo, Msgr.
Walter Insero, head of the Office for Social Communications for the
Vicariate of Rome, and Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., director of the
Holy See Press Office.

The initiatives will include a digital
platform, the aim of which is to enable the faithful and pilgrims to
have access to news and information regarding the ceremonies as well
as a series of spiritual reflections on the life and teachings of
both popes. Indeed, the official site www.2papisanti.org is an
almost-completed portal which offers contacts, sections for press
offices, information, videos and images as well as biographical
documentation on John XXIII and John Paul II. It will be available in
five languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Polish.

The application entitled “Santo
Subito”, which may be downloaded free in both Android and IOS
formats (in Italian, English, Spanish and Polish) and whose title
draws on the famed saintliness of both Popes even during their
lifetimes, will offer logistical information, as well as access to
the main news on the canonisations, and will allow material relating
to the various liturgical events to be downloaded.

Existing media include:

Official page of the Postulation with
content in five languages:

https://www.facebook.com/PapaGiovanniPaoloIIpaginaufficiale

Official Twitter page with content in
five languages:

https://twitter.com/santowojtyla

YouTube channel for the Postulation:

https://www.youtube.com/user/adminkarol

Portal: www.karol-wojtyla.org

This latter, developed in 2011 for the
beatification of Karol Wojtyla, gives a detailed illustration of the
stages in the canonical process leading to the recognition of the
saintliness of John Paul II and is available in several languages:
Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Romanian.

The parallel project #2popesaints,
realised in collaboration with the students of communication sciences
from the Roman university LUMSA involves a series of networks
enabling young people to get to know the lives, teachings and
testimony of faith of the two new saints. There will be a Facebook
page entitled 2popesaints; on Twitter, the account @2popesaints; on
Instagram, #2popesaints; and on YouTube, 2popesaints. Every day each
one of the above will propose a theme relating to both popes in the
media, starting from 16 April until the canonisation, and each event
will be transmitted live on each network.

On Google+ there will be the
possibility of following in a “hangout” the daily briefings
during the week leading up to the canonisation. A QR code will also
be created to allow rapid access to the site 2popesaints.org. The
initiative “Rome connecting to the World”, a form of “twinning”
between the faithful arriving in Rome and the young people of the
city, will make it possible to get to know the most important
locations in Rome along with the history of John XXIII and John Paul
II, providing information on the Facebook page.

In the diocese of Rome, on 22 April in
the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Cardinal Agostino Vallini will
preside at a meeting addressing young people, with the postulators
for the causes of both saints: Msgr. Slavomir Oder (John Paul II) and
Fr. Giovangiuseppe Califano (John XXIII). On 26 April, starting at 9
p.m., there will be a “White night of prayer” and the churches
throughout the centre of Rome will remain open for prayer and
confession in various languages.

Similarly, the diocese of Bergamo will
pay homage to XIII with the initiative “Le Opere Segno”, a series
of activities dedicated to charity, human development and solidarity
which affect daily lives. They include an aid project for Haiti to
guarantee three years' education in the John XXIII school; an
invitation to priests to contribute a month's salary and all the alms
collected by the parish communities on 27 April to a fund set up in
aid of families afflicted by the economic crisis; and the
commemoration, on 12 April, of the publication of the encyclical
“Pacem in Terris”, to be attended by ambassadors representing the
countries where Angelo Roncalli carried out his diplomatic mission as
an apostolic nuncio (Bulgaria, Turkey, Greek and France), and which
will be presented by Jacques Delors, former president of the European
Commission.